Effort Coordinator Training

1
Effort Coordinator Training

• The UW Effort Project Team
• Ruth Fruehling ? Chip Quade
• October, 2007
• Research and Sponsored Programs
• The Graduate School
• University of WisconsinMadison

2
Introduction

• Background
• What were going to cover today
• Why is this important?

3
Effort Project Kicked off in June 2006

• Assess current business processes related to
  effort management
• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Retire the PAR system
• Launch a Web-based effort certification system
• Effort Certification and Reporting Technology
  (ECRT)
• Improve policies and procedures
• Raise the level of understanding about effort

4
Todays topics

• Effort 101 includes
• Basics of effort on sponsored projects
• UW-Madison effort reporting policies
• Key business process changes
• Key ECRT concepts
• ECRT demonstration includes
• How faculty and staff use ECRT to certify effort
• What you will do (with ECRT, and in general)
• Special circumstances and how to handle them

5
Why is this important?

• Effort is important because
• Federal regulations about effort are very
  specific
• The principles may not be well understood at
  UW-Madison
• Effort reporting is a hot topic among auditors
• We're conducting this training because
• Certification with ECRT starts November 1, 2007
• Faculty and staff will get training too either
  on-line or in person
• Faculty and staff will be instructed to contact
  you for assistance
• You play a key role in the effort management
  process

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Effort Basics, Part IFundamental principles
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What is Effort?

• The time you spend on an activity, expressed as a
  percentage of all the time you spend on your UW
  job duties

8
What is Effort Certification?

• If you work on a sponsored project, you're
  required to assure the sponsor that
• You did, in fact, devote effort to the project at
  a level that corresponds with how you were paid
  from the project
• You've met your commitments of effort to the
  project, regardless of whether the sponsor
  provided salary support
• Whats new about this?
• Nothing, but people may not have been thinking
  about it this way!

9
It's not an exact science

• Precise accounting is not required
• Sponsors recognize that research, teaching,
  service, and administration are often
  inextricably intermingled
• Reasonable estimates are expected
• But there are some rules to follow!

10
Certifying 100 of your UW Effort

• If you work on a sponsored project, what's
  important is the effort on that project in
  relation to your other effort
• Therefore, you must certify 100 of your UW
  effort
• The current PAR forms show only effort on federal
  sponsored projects (and not even all of it!)

11
Okay, what does 100 effort mean?

• Effort is not based on a 40-hour work week
• 100 equals all the activities for which you are
  compensated by the UW, regardless of the
  appointment percent or number of hours worked
• Examples
• If you work a half-time job, your 100 what you
  do for that 0.5 FTE appointment
• If you work 80 hours a week, your 100 what you
  do during those 80 hours

12
Sponsored and Non-Sponsored Activities

• The federal government is very specific about the
  activities that are allocable to sponsored
  projects
• Example
• Mentoring a graduate student is a sponsored
  activity if it's specific to a sponsored project
• Otherwise, it's instruction a non-sponsored
  activity
• When determining your effort distribution, you
  must distinguish between activities that are
  allocable to sponsored projects and those that
  are not

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Putting it all together

• The pie represents your UW effort
• The challenge is to figure out
• How big is the whole pie?
• What is the relative size of the slices?

Sponsored Activity
Non-Sponsored Activity
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Effort Basics, Part II Assuring that salary
charges are reasonable, given the work that was
performed
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What counts as UW effort?

• The activities for which you are compensated by
  the UW
• This includes
• Externally sponsored research
• Internally-funded or unfunded research
• Instruction, administration, and service on
  committees
• Public service and outreach activities directly
  related to your UW professional duties

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What is outside of UW effort?

• Activities for which someone else compensates
  you, and some activities for which you are not
  paid
• Examples
• Consulting
• Leadership in professional societies
• Peer review of manuscripts
• Advisory activities for a sponsor (NIH study
  section, or NSF peer review panel)
• Clinical activity funded by the UWMF
• Activity for a VA appointment

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What counts as sponsored activity?

• Activities contributing to and intimately related
  to work under the agreement
• As long as it's about the specific project, it
  counts as sponsored activity
• Lab meetings, conferences, seminars
• Writing a progress report
• Reading journals to keep up to date on the
  subject area is sponsored activity

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Some specifics

• Writing a proposal for a new project or competing
  continuation does NOT count as a sponsored
  activity
• A problem for PIs who are funded 100 on
  sponsored projects!
• Lab meetings not specific to a project do not
  count as sponsored activity
• Research patient care
• The care that is described in the protocol is
  sponsored activity
• Routine patient care is not, even if provided to
  a research subject

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Effort that's too small to count

• Activities that you do on an infrequent,
  irregular basis can be ignored in your effort
  calculations if the total amount of time would
  not affect your effort distribution
• Possible examples department meetings, serving
  on a search committee depending on your
  individual situation
• Some activities should not be counted as separate
  from your UW job duties, such as
• Requesting your parking assignment
• Completing a travel expense report
• Regular, well-defined activities cannot be de
  minimis
• Proposal writing cannot be de minimis

20
Reasonable estimates and the degree of tolerance

• There is an acceptable variance between your
  actual effort and the effort as certified on the
  statement
• The UW defines this to be five percentage points
  out of your 100 UW effort
• Example
• Effort statement shows 50 of your salary was
  paid by the sponsored project
• No cost sharing
• It is permissible to certify 50 effort on the
  project if your actual effort on the project
  could reasonably be determined to fall between
  45 and 55 of your total UW effort

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A word of caution

• If you are paid 100 on sponsored projects, and
• If you spend 5 of your time on regular,
  well-defined committee work or administration or
  if you write grant proposals
• The five percent rule does NOT mean that you can
  certify 100 of your effort on sponsored projects
• It only describes a degree of tolerance in
  certifying for a single project
• You cannot charge salary to the sponsor for
  activities that are not allocable to sponsored
  projects!

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"Unfunded" or "weekend" work?

• Activities that are closely associated with your
  UW professional duties must be reported as UW
  effort
• Examples
• Proposal writing
• Instruction, administration, service on
  committees
• You cannot characterize them as "unfunded" or
  "volunteer" activities, or "weekend work," for
  which no UW salary is paid

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Effort Basics, Part III Assuring that
commitments to sponsored projects have been met
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What is a commitment?

• The amount of effort you propose in a grant
  proposal or other project application, and that
  the sponsor accepts regardless of whether you
  request salary support for the effort
• Specific and quantified
• Example
• You propose 30 effort for twelve months
• You request salary support for 10 of your effort
• The effort commitment is 30

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For whom are commitments recognized?

• The principal investigator/project director
• All co-investigators
• All individuals identified as senior/key
  personnel in the grant proposal
• When the proposal does not explicitly list key
  persons, the university defines key personnel for
  the purpose of effort reporting as the principal
  investigator/project director and all
  co-investigators

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Where are commitments indicated?

• Some statements in the proposal become
  commitments when the university and the sponsor
  finalize the award agreement
• Requests for salary support and statements about
  cost-shared effort in the budget or budget
  justification
• Effort proposed in the narrative but only when
  specific and quantified
• Example "Professor Jones will devote 10 of his
  time during the academic year to this project."

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Actual effort can vary over time

• To meet a commitment, the actual effort need not
  be a constant
• It must add up, over time, to fulfill the
  commitment
• Example If 30 effort is committed for a
  calendar year, one way to fulfill this commitment
  is by spending
• 40 effort on the project during the first six
  months of the year, and
• 20 effort on the project during the last six
  months

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PI's minimum commitment of effort

• The PI/PD's minimum required commitment to each
  project is 1 effort, except for
• When an individual is the PI on multiple clinical
  trials
• The commitment to any one trial may be less than
  1, as long as the sum of all the commitments
  represents a reasonable level of effort
• Equipment and instrumentation grants, doctoral
  dissertation grants, and student augmentation
  grants

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When the awarded budget is less than proposed

• You cannot assume that the effort commitments are
  automatically reduced in proportion to the budget
  reduction
• Your options are
• Keep salaries and effort the same, and reduce
  other budget categories
• Keep effort the same, reduce salaries, and
  document the increase in cost sharing
• Reduce effort commitments requesting prior
  approval for a key person's reduction of 25 or
  more

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No-cost extensions

• Award terms and conditions apply throughout the
  project period, including a no-cost extension
  period
• At the same time, sponsors recognize that PI
  effort may be reduced as the project is winding
  down
• It is in the best interests of the institution
  and the PI to notify the sponsor of a decrease in
  effort

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Effort Basics, Part IV Managing effort over the
lifetime of a project
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The life cycle of effort
Theres more to it than just signing a form
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Salary charges must be consistent with actual
effort

• When you devote 40 effort for six months and 20
  for six months, it is not acceptable to
• Charge salary at a constant 30 rate, or
• Certify effort at a constant 30 rate
• But a short-term fluctuation is acceptable
• An effort deficit of not more than two months,
  with
• Catch-up in a comparable period, such that it all
  evens out

34
Some changes in effort require prior approval
from the sponsor

• A significant change in work activity is
• A 25 percent (or greater) reduction in the level
  of committed effort
• An absence from the project of three months or
  more
• A withdrawal from the project
• For a PI/PD or key person as listed in the NOGA
• A significant change in work activity requires
  prior approval in writing from the sponsor's
  Grants Officer

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More about changes in effort

• Example
• The PI's committed effort is 40
• The PI wants to reduce it to 30
• The drop is 25 of the original effort
  commitment, so it requires prior written approval
• Other commitment changes must be documented
• Any other change, for a person listed in the NOGA
• ANY change, for a key person listed in the
  proposal but not in the NOGA

36
Rebudgeting

• PIs generally have some flexibility in managing
  project budgets, including salary charges
• However, rebudgeting authority does not confer
  the right to
• Make significant changes in work activity without
  prior approval
• Change effort commitments without documenting the
  changes
• Rules for changing salary and effort are
  summarized on the RSP Web site

37
UW-Madison effort certification policies and
procedures
38
Whose effort must be certified?

• Effort must be certified for all UW faculty,
  staff, students, and postdoctoral researchers who
  either
• Charge part or all of their salary directly to a
  sponsored project, or
• Expend committed effort on a sponsored project,
  even though no part of their salary is charged to
  the project

39
Who certifies for whom?

• Effort must be certified by a responsible person
  with suitable means of verifying that the work
  was performed
• At the UW
• All PIs, faculty, and academic staff members
  certify for themselves
• PIs certify for the graduate students, postdocs,
  and non-PI classified staff who work on their
  projects

40
More about who certifies for whom

• When the PI doesn't have suitable means of
  verifying that the work was performed
• A designee can certify the effort for project
  staff
• When a staff person works on projects for
  multiple PIs
• Any one PI with suitable means of verifying all
  the effort can certify, or
• Individual PIs can each certify part of the effort

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When must effort be certified?

• For classified staff 4 times a year
• Periods of performance (PPs) correspond to
  calendar quarters
• For everyone else twice yearly
• PPs are January - June and July - December
• Certification starts a month or more after the PP
• The certification window is 90 days
• The schedule may be altered during the transition
  to ECRT

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How to determine effort for a six-month period

• Some examples

Activity Average DOD Award A 25 NIH Award
B 20 NSF Award C 21
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun 50 50 50 0 0
0 30 30 30 20 10 0 5 5 5
5 5 100

• Use the Effort Calculator that will be available
  from within ECRT
• Check the Add-on Tools link

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Whose effort can be certified with ECRT?

• Faculty, staff, graduate students, postdoctoral
  researchers except
• Those with no UW payroll
• Anyone who self-certifies, leaves the UW, and can
  no longer log in with their NetID
• Student hourly effort is not certified via ECRT
• The timesheet serves as the mechanism for
  certifying effort

44
Recertification

• Up to the certification deadline, you can grant a
  request to recertify
• And you can reopen the statement for
  recertification
• After the certification deadline
• The PI must submit a written request to RSP
• The written request will be reviewed by the
  Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
  Administration
• Only in the most compelling of circumstances will
  it be granted

45
Important Changes in Business Processes
46
Recap Some things youve already heard today

• Researchers must certify effort, not payroll
• The role of the Effort Coordinator will be
  significantly different than the traditional role
  of the PAR Coordinator
• No more paper PARs
• The process for following up on uncertified
  statements will be different

47
Certification and salary cost transfers

• If a salary cost transfer was initiated prior to
  certification
• Researchers should not wait for it to post before
  certifying effort
• As a result of certification, a salary cost
  transfer can be initiated to bring payroll into
  line with certified effort
• This is an appropriate and important part of
  sponsored projects administration
• Effort certification guidelines do not change the
  existing salary cost transfer policy

48
New treatment of cost-shared effort

• Know the distinction between four types of
  cost-shared effort
• Mandatory cost sharing
• Voluntary committed cost sharing
• Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing
• NSF Institutional cost sharing
• No changes for three of these, but a big change
  for one of these!

49
Mandatory cost sharing

• Required by the sponsor as a condition for
  proposal submission and award acceptance
• This effort was certified with the PAR system
• It will be pre-loaded into ECRT
• No real change It will appear on the effort
  statement, and it must be certified

50
Voluntary committed cost sharing

• Not required by the sponsor as a condition for
  proposal submission, but once offered and
  accepted it becomes a commitment
• It was not possible (or required) to certify this
  on the PAR form
• This effort MUST be certified with ECRT
• For a while, this effort cannot be pre-loaded
  into ECRT
• A certifier must ADD it to the effort that
  appears on the statement

51
Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing

• Extra effort over and above an individual's
  commitment not pledged in the proposal or stated
  in the award documents
• This effort is not auditable and should not be
  documented or tracked
• It was not certified with the PAR system
• It will not be pre-loaded into ECRT
• Certifiers should not add it to the effort that
  appears on the statement

52
NSF institutional cost sharing

• Not stated in the proposal, but established by
  the UW to meet an NSF requirement (1 of costs on
  certain unsolicited awards)
• This effort was certified with the PAR system
• It will be pre-loaded into ECRT
• No real change It will appear on the effort
  statement, and it must be certified

53
New treatment of commitments

• ECRT can track an individual's progress toward
  meeting commitments
• Data about commitments will be loaded into ECRT
  when it becomes available, starting when the
  Grants system goes live
• Many business processes related to commitments
  will be rolled out at that time

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Key ECRT Concepts
55
Time periods

• Period of performance
• The semiannual or quarterly time period for which
  effort must be certified
• Certification period (or certification window)
• The time during which
• Faculty and staff certify effort
• You review and process the certifications

56
Effort statement

• The ECRT web page on which certifiers
• View the payroll distribution and cost-sharing
  amounts
• Enter and certify the effort distribution
• Once certified, this becomes an official
  university document and is subject to audit
• Also called an effort certification card or
  effort card

57
Reminder!

• A sponsored project has
• a scope of work
• a budget
• specific terms and conditions

58
What an effort statement looks like
Well explain the various columns later!
59
Sponsored and non-sponsored pay sources

• For the purpose of effort certification,
  sponsored effort includes
• Fund 133 Non-Federal Projects (except gifts)
• Fund 142 Hatch Adams - Land Grant Research
• Fund 143 Smith Lever - Land Grant Extension
• Fund 144 Federal Projects
• Non-sponsored pay sources are everything else

60
The certifier's primary department

• Based on information in the UW HR/Appointment
  system
• Determines which effort coordinator will process
  the statement
• For people with multiple appointments
• A true "primary department" can't always be
  determined from HR data
• The ECRT primary department may not be correct
  and can be changed within ECRT

61
You are at the center of the process
62
Primary and secondary effort coordinators

• If a department has more than one effort
  coordinator
• Only the primary EC can process the effort
  statements
• The secondary can view statements and reports,
  enter notes, and assist certifiers but cannot
  process a statement

63
Current effort versus historical effort

• An effort card is completed when
• The statement has been certified, AND
• You have processed the certification
• Once completed, it becomes a historical effort
  card
• Anything else is a current effort card

64
An effort statements life journey
65
ECRT Demonstration
66
Special circumstances and how to handle them
67
Special circumstances, part 1

• Graduate students, postdocs, and non-PI
  classified staff who work on multiple sponsored
  projects for different PIs
• Who certifies their effort?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 63
• People with appointments in multiple departments
• Is there more than one effort statement?
• Which effort coordinator processes the
  certification?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 72

68
Special circumstances, part 2

• People with appointments at more than one campus
  (for example, Madison and Extension)
• Is there more than one statement?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 72
• People who change from classified to academic
  staff positions during a period of performance
• Is there more than one statement?
• Who should certify the effort?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 71

69
Special circumstances, part 3

• People who take a position in a new department
  during a period of performance, even if the
  appointment type doesnt change
• Which effort coordinator processes the
  certification?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 71
• People who leave the UW during a period of
  performance
• How do they certify before leaving?
• If they dont certify before leaving, what
  happens?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 69

70
Special circumstances, part 4

• People with effort on sponsored projects but no
  UW payroll, whose effort cannot be certified with
  ECRT
• How is their effort certified?
• See the Effort Coordinators Guide, page 68